Get organised at work
I.M. Soni

YOUR chance to getting job and then going up the greasy ladder of success depends on mental efficiency. It means, you must be work-smart.

You can be intellectually brilliant and yet the unaware of what is going on around you. The efficiency of others leaves you unimpressed and you are averse to your own success. What can you do to make yourself more alert mentally?

Contact keen minds by listening carefully to selected television and radio programmes, by attending classes and lectures, and by reading books that help.

Observe more. "Look thy last on all things lovely" says Walter de la Mare. For mental alertness, look not only on the beautiful also but the wonderful, the commonplace, the curious, and the apparently insignificant. Alert your mental antennas and you will be richly rewarded.

Have you heard of an efficient person who couldn’t concentrate? Whose mind goes wool-gaining while on duty?

How is this ability called concentration acquired? The secret is interest. Keep interest alive and concentration acquired. Think how a cricket match or television programme makes you a stranger to the world?

Apply this principal to tasks from which mind is tempted to wander. What rewards will they bring? Remind yourself of these to re-kindle interest, and concentration will return.

Work longer on the task in hand and you will get under its surface. Work in short spells and your mind wanders.

An efficient mind is retentive. It stores countless facts and an recall them when needed. Leave the absent-minded professor to his classrooms.

Get a clear impression. You will not recall well if your initial impression is hazy. You are not able to recall because you were not quite sure how to spell it or pronounce it. You must aim at a clear grasp, an exact knowledge, a mastery of facts.

Make an association. The process of remembering may be likened to a bicycle chain. Each link brings along the one behind it, provided the connection is there.

Use repetition. The more times and the more ways you can reiterate the matter you want to recall, the more efficient you will do it.

An efficient mind gathers relevant data as quickly as possible, gives them adequate thought, promptly comes to a decision and acts upon it. There are no delays.

We have all praised efficiency when someone has taken care of details that breathe. To develop this aspect of efficiency, you must use your imagination so that every detail of anything for which you are responsible gets adequate attention.

Learn to anticipate needs, visualise things happening, make provision for emergencies. These are the ways to increase mental efficiency ratings.

Fumblers are muddled thinkers. They build their thought structures on quicksand foundations. The efficient mind checks these premises for truth and then reasons only by sound valid processes.

Avoid sweeping generalisations as far as it is possible.

Be sure of your facts. If your ‘facts’ are false, your conclusions will be false.

When you are emotionally involved in an issue, it is difficult to see facts as they really are. You tend to see them, as you would like them to be.

An efficient mind can cope with life and its problems. It sees things calmly and sees them whole. It proceeds surely, defines, classifies, analyses.

Be organised and orderly. It helps to begin in a small way. Get each day and week well organised. Keep drawers and cupboards tidy. Use trays and files for correspondence. Keep your desktop of all except the matter in hand. Keep records and a diary for engagements, appointments and deadlines. Draw up programmes to peep into the future.

Be prompt. Avoid procrastination. The Chief will know it and mentally mark you ‘sluggard’!

Follow the points mentioned. You will gain a reputation for mental efficiency, which leads you up the slippery success pole.